Chapter 28
Every vampire in the clearing watched in silence, with obvious relief evident on their somber faces, as Alice turned Isabella away from Edward and the two dark figures vanished into the shadowed gloom of the canopied darkness. None of them could explain what had just happened, since Isabella seemed so suddenly and oddly compliant. Eliza watched the two of them walk slowly out of the clearing with a look of surprise on her face.
Even though no one had been killed, the sheer savagery of Isabella's outburst was somehow far more terrifying than the fight with the newborns minutes earlier. There was a sharp contrast between the primal ferocity of the melee against newborn army, and the violent uncontrolled rage that Isabella displayed towards Edward. The former looked and felt like explosions of short controlled bursts of rage, the latter was an unbridled yet tightly focused fury.
No one moved to help Edward pull himself out of his indent in the tree. So when he pushed himself out of the trunk, he stumbled slightly as his feet hit the ground. Then he straightened up, dusted himself off and snarled at no one in particular. "What the hell is her problem?" He growled, glaring at where Isabella and Alice had disappeared from view.
Without warning, Eliza spun around and without hesitation, pulled her leg back and kicked Edward solidly between the legs. He gasped loudly in surprise, which was followed by a small annoying squeak that sounded like Mickey mouse getting squashed by the Monty Python foot. Quickly sinking to his knees with a pathetic wheezing and whimpering sound.
"She's not the one with a problem. You're the one with a problem. You're a fucking moron." Eliza said with an icy calm voice before she turned around to walk back towards the clearing, leaving him lying on the ground hunched over in a semi-fetal position. "Asshole." She said over her shoulder as she walked away.
Eliza walked until the impulse to stomp Edward into the ground lessened. Then she stopped and glanced back towards where she knew her mother was. Trying to get a sense through their connection of the tenor of Isabella's emotional state. She couldn't understand how, or why Alice hadn't been turned into dust as just another obstacle in her mother's path.
Never before had Eliza seen anything or anyone come close to reaching through to her mother when she was in that state. On the handful of occasions when she had lost her temper to that extreme, it took all of Eliza's concentration focused through their connection to pull her back to reality. The only other exception was when Eliza found herself hurt or in trouble she couldn't handle on her own. So Alice's strange and immediate effect on Isabella was a mystery that Eliza was determined to solve."
Unfortunately Eliza would have to figure it out later, in her own time, in her own way. She wasn't using their connection to spy or see through her mother's eyes at the moment. They were always aware of one another's emotional state, Eliza was just focusing on it. Her primary concern was whether or not Alice's effect had just snapped her out of it temporarily or not. So she monitored her mother's emotions, a thoughtful expression on her face. Eliza was so focused on her Mother, that she was slightly startled when Jacob stepped up beside her.
"Is she going to be okay?" Jacob asked quietly. Once he'd settled into a comfortable position next to her, he glanced in the same direction Eliza was staring, concern wrinkling his eyes in just the right way to betray his true age.
Eliza nodded, her thoughts were still mostly focused on her mother and Alice. "She's calming down, she'll be fine in a few minutes." It wasn't exactly the truth, since her mother's emotional state was swinging erratically from her normal angry state, to seething hatred, to hurt. The only real truth was somehow Isabella had gotten her control back. She winced at that hard fact, her Mother was always angry or hurt. It was something Eliza had accepted long ago, but had never felt content with. Nothing could live in perpetual anger forever without eventually destroying itself. It had been a lifelong goal to and figure out some way to give her mother something besides that anger, but it was obviously still a work in progress with minimal results thus far.
Jacob looked over his shoulder, back to where Edward was still on the ground holding his cracked crotch and groaning softly. A small sense of satisfaction spread his mouth into his old trademark grin. "You know, I've wanted to do that for about a hundred years. "
"Long overdue I'd say." Eliza and Jacob both turned their heads in surprise as Emmett stepped up close to Eliza. He didn't bother trying to hide his own smirk of amusement at Edward's current predicament. Edward looked up and glared indignantly at Emmett.
Eliza grinned a little bit, while Jacob looked at Emmett warily. The two of them were both large and had similar frames so they stood eye to eye. Eliza could almost feel the testosterone start to flow. Before either could open their mouth she turned, "Emmett, this is Jacob Black, Alpha of the pack. Jacob, this is Emmett Cullen, he's nothing like the prick on the ground."
Jacob hesitated a moment and then laughed, and after a moment he offered his hand to Emmett. Emmett blinked in surprise but reached out to shake the proffered hand.
Eliza glanced around, her eyes drawn back over where Leah remained crouched next to the vampire girl who was curled up on the ground. She caught Leah's eye to make sure she was okay. Leah responded with a reassuring smile, they both let the eye contact linger a little longer than needed.
Then Eliza turned to look from Jacob to Emmett, and then did a long sweep of the bodies lying all over the meadow. "I'm going to go back and check on the girl. Jacob, would you mind lending a hand for a bit to help us clean up this mess?"
Jacob nodded and began to pick up the scattered body parts to carry them over to the fire. As if on cue the rest of his pack members began to pick up the pieces and appendages. Realizing what the pack was up to, the Denali clan seemed to snap out of their momentary fugue and began to help with the clean up as well.
Finally some of the Cullens began to pitch in, except for Edward who remained on his knees in a semi-fetal position for several minutes, clearly hurt when none of his family had come to check on him. Esme and Rosalie both stayed close to Leah and the frightened teen girl. The compassion on Esme's face was less surprising to Eliza than the concern etched on Rosalie's.
Eliza was headed over toward Leah and the girl when something unexpected made her freeze in mid-step. For just a second it had seemed like her mother was losing control. Eliza tensed in preparation to spend a tremendous amount of effort to try and stop her mother from killing Alice. And then… she couldn't believe it. Her eyes went wide. For a brief moment she could feel what was happening between them. It wasn't just the intensity of the feeling, it was the alien nature of it. Eliza closed herself off as much as possible and looked down guiltily, as if she'd been caught peeping.
No one seemed to catch the momentary hesitation as Eliza covered the hiccup in her stride, and quickly closed the distance to Leah, Rosalie, and Esme who were hovering over the terrified vampire girl she'd rescued. She tried to speak soothingly to the girl in an attempt to ease her out of the fetal position, but it didn't help, if anything she seemed to make the poor girl shake a bit more violently.
Eliza had still made no progress several minutes later, when Isabella and Alice walked back into the clearing. Eliza noticed with mild curiosity that this time she had Alice was tow, their hands were joined tightly, but at least Isabella's expression had returned to its normal impassive scowl, but she could tell she was distracted by something.
Once Isabella had stepped back into the clearing, she gave the area a long exaggerated examination taking in every possible detail and danger. First, her eyes found Eliza crouched down by the girl, then they passed over Esme and Leah, very briefly at Edward holding himself like a toddler waiting to use the potty, and then finally ending on the group adding body parts to the giant bon fire. The entire time she was intensely aware of Alice's fingers intertwined with hers, but couldn't seem to make herself let them go. She was amazed at how… calm just holding on to Alice made her feel.
Memories arose unbidden to her mind, and without consciously drawing on them Isabella flashed back to her fuzzy human days. To the times when Alice used to touch her. Foreign feelings surged up inside of her, as she remembered just how soothing she used to find Alice's touch. She recalled with perfect clarity Alice holding her hand just like this to reassure her at times, or to encourage her on some trip through the mall, or when they would hug and from that simple embrace Isabella's bad day would turn around entirely. She remembered that Alice was always there as a shoulder to cry on when she was upset, except when Edward was hovering.
However, the memory of their kiss was not only the strongest of those memories, but dominated her thoughts. She still couldn't figure out why the hell she'd done it. She didn't think it was a conscious decision. Hell, she didn't know what to think, or even what was going through her mind at the time? She needed time to sort it out, but she had no interest in sussing out her problems surrounded by this assorted group. Alice's expression didn't help matters at all, she looked content. Yet she wasn't demanding answers of Isabella, which was a relief because she wasn't sure she had any.
Alice may have looked content, but her own emotions were a jumble. Hearing about the horrors her Bella had to endure, made her feel fragile like glass, and nauseous as if she still had the human capacity to vomit. The idea of inflicting that on anyone, especially Bella angered her far more than she thought possible. She was angry at Edward, angry at her whole family, but mostly angry at herself for leaving Isabella alone and helpless against a monster that would do that to her.
The conflict came because even though she felt horrible over Bella's past. She was also floating, and had to resist the urge to skip as she came into the clearing. Isabella had kissed her. She hadn't expected it. Hadn't dreamt of it. Certainly not then, but Isabella had done it. The idea that somewhere deep inside, Isabella could still feel something like that thrilled Alice in a way she'd never thought possible.
Alice kept turning it over and over in her head. What had been done to Isabella made her want to weep, but the emotions went further than simple grief or even empathy. It had become more and more obvious that Bella wasn't "okay". What she had gone through had not just broken her, it went far beyond being broken. This Isabella was mentally ill. Alice had no idea how this woman even managed to be functional. In every conceivable way Alice could imagine, this Isabella was not anyone resembling the girl who had been abducted and taken to the cabin all those years ago. In a very real way, Victoria had killed that Bella.
As Alice recognized this, it grounded her and allowed her to gain enough emotional distance so that she didn't immediately throw herself at Isabella, baring her soul and declaring her love. That wasn't what Isabella needed then, she needed help, understanding, catharsis, forgiveness and… something more. This Isabella had built up a shell of anger and fury to protect herself. Unfortunately Alice could also see there were some cracks in the shell. Some old, like the ones created from her relationship with Eliza. To the new one formed with their kiss. She knew Isabella needed a lot of healing, she just hoped some of the healing could occur before the shell shattered.
Alice looked around the clearing, her eyes falling on the tree Isabella had toppled with a single punch. Before she could comment though, Jacob approached.
"She still claims not to have a temper." Jacob said walking up to the duo with a toothy grin. "There are probably splinters from that tree that landed miles from here."
Alice's eyes went flat for a moment, glancing at Isabella to see if she had taken offense. If she had, Alice might have done her best to make sure that Jacob shared the tree's fate.
Instead Isabella gave a very small chuckle, a bit of tension the she had built up flowing out of her from the teasing comment. After a few long seconds of hesitation Isabella turned to Alice, "This is Jacob Black. He's the Alpha of the pack, and an old friend."
Alice surprised them both by offering her hand to Jacob. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Alice. Hoping to be a friend."
Jacob hesitated a moment and then took the offered hand briefly. Shaking hands with two vampires in one night was quite a shock to his system. After Alice let go he clenched his fist several times, adjusting to the cool flesh of a vampire, it was as if he were worried vampirism was catching. "It's nice to meet you." Jacob turned his attention back to Isabella, "If you're okay, we definitely have to talk. "
Isabella nodded, but her attention was diverted by an urgent shout from Eliza. "Mom, I need your help over here. Something's… not right."
Esme's voice rang out a moment later, sounding more urgent. "Carlisle, come quick."
Isabella moved quickly, with Jacob and Alice in tow, to where Eliza, Leah, Rosalie, Esme and now Carlisle were all crouched around the teen vampire. Isabella took closer note of the girl's feature's this time. She was petite, with dark hair in a ragged pony tail. Isabella could see what had drawn Eliza's concern.
The girl was laying on the ground. Her eyes were closed, but her face was clenched in pain. Her arms and legs were moving in irregular spasms, and the girl was uttering helpless little whimpers as her entire body convulsed randomly.
Carlisle was crouched over the girl before Isabella got there. His face was a puzzled scowl. He put his hand on one of the girls arms and lifted it slightly. The girl didn't protest but the arm spasmed every few seconds in Carlisle's hand. Beneath the girl's pale skin were the faint grey lines of her veins.
Eliza frowned at the sight and turned to her mother with a confused frown on her face. Isabella shook her head slightly, indicating she had no idea what to make of it. She turned to Carlisle who shook his head slowly. "We should get her inside, so I can take a closer look at her."
Isabella nodded slowly and then glanced around, her eyes falling on Jacob. "Maybe we should take her to our place instead. A bit more… inclusive."
Carlisle glanced up and followed Isabella's gaze to Jacob and then shook his head, replying almost absently. "Don't be silly, the Quileutes are welcome in our home. Esme, could you get my office ready, I need to examine her?" He completely ignored the gagging and retching sound that Rosalie was making. Esme nodded and blurred away from the girl to the house.
The shaking girl was looking around at the faces surrounding her, and when Carlisle leaned down to take her in his arms and she flinched away from him with a slight snarl that could've been mistaken for whimper. Then she scrambled weakly backwards to where Eliza and Isabella knelt side by side. It actually seemed like she was trying to crawl closer to Isabella than anyone.
"I'll carry her Carlisle." Isabella stated, cutting Eliza off before she could make the offer. Isabella didn't know what was happening to the girl, but if, for some reason, the girl suddenly lashed out, she didn't want it to be Eliza who was carrying her. Isabella slowly slid her arms under the girl prepared for anything, to Isabella's surprise although she seized once at the contact, she didn't pull away.
Once Isabella had the girl in her arms, she noticed the odd grey veins in her neck had spread up to her cheeks. She stood up and started towards the Cullen house, without looking she knew Jacob, Eliza, Leah and Carlisle were all walking with her.
Carlisle pushed ahead of the group so that he could open the door for Isabella. "My office is ups-"
"I remember where it is." Isabella interrupted in a deliberately flat tone of voice. She was focused on the task at hand, and made her way quickly through the house that only yesterday she had thought she would never set foot in again. The flashes of fuzzy human memories began to flood into her conscious thoughts again, threatening to distract her, but she refused to let them overwhelm her. Walking through the open door to Carlisle's office she find Esme, had already prepared the couch with a pillow and shifting of cushions. There was also an assortment of examination tools spread out on a mobile tray.
Isabella set the girl down on the couch gently, and slid her arms from beneath her. However when she attempted to move back, the girl immediately snapped out a trembling hand and snatched Isabella's. "Th..thirsty" the girl croaked out. Then she opened her eyes despite another spasm of pain, and Isabella saw that the irises were completely black, a sign of pure hunger. Then fell back and closed her eyes again, but kept her fingers wrapped around Isabella's hand like she were drowning in a vast ocean and Isabella was a life preserver. Alice rearranged the pillows at the girl's feet to better accommodate her. She was unsure of the girl, her brow furrowed with concern.
Isabella frowned, and looked up at Carlisle who shook his head slightly, "I can run to the hospital. I should be able to lift some blood packs without too much of a problem."
"That's okay. We've got some extra. Eliza…?" Isabella glanced up to see the retreating form of her daughter already headed out the door.
"I'll be back. How many do you think we'll need?" Eliza's voice rang softly in her mother's mind.
"Bring everything Henry has. Our supplies should get here next week. I don't know how much this girl will need."Isabella replied. Eliza flashed back a wordless agreement. In the much brighter light of the house Isabella saw the grey lines of the girls' veins were darkest on her neck, but they had traveled out from that point not only up onto her face but also down her arms all the way down to her hands.
Carlisle moved in closer to the girl, crouching beside Isabella. When Isabella shifted slightly move out of Carlisle's way the grip on her hand tightened. Isabella murmured reassuringly as Carlisle looked at the girl's hands closely. "It's okay sweetie, he's a doctor. He's just trying to figure out what's wrong with you. Can you tell me your name?" Isabella did her best to keep her voice gentle and encouraging.
The girl's black eyes locked on Isabella's again, her entire body contracted once before settling again. Her voice was again a croak, "Br..ee."
"It's nice to meet you Bree, I'm Isabella. The doctor looking you over is Carlisle. He's going to try and help you." Isabella smiled awkwardly trying her best to reassure the teen.
"Hurtssss… so much" Bree's voice came out in a long drawn out hiss.
Isabella winced at the pain, she wasn't normally empathic but she could remember her own hunger hurting like that. She glanced at Carlisle who had moved down to the girl's legs. Esme had removed the remains of her shoes at Carlisle's silent request. Even before he tore away the tattered denim, Isabella could see that the grey lines extended down all the way down to her toes as well.
Carlisle looked up at Bree's face and said gently, "I'm going to apply a little bit of pressure against a few points on your leg. Let me know if it hurts." He waited until Bree nodded in acknowledgement, though she didn't look down at Carlisle. She kept her eyes locked on Isabella's face.
She didn't react when Carlisle lightly set his hands on her legs, just letting his skin contact hers, but as soon as Carlisle squeezed with any force she flinched, pulled her leg away, and whimpered. He immediately stopped and shifted his hands, repeating the test in different places. After checking several areas, he finally stopped and murmured a quiet apology to the girl.
Eliza strode back into the room carrying a medium sized blue cooler. She set the cooler down on Carlisle's desk and removed a bag of blood. Isabella glanced at Carlisle who was quietly watching Bree, a puzzled look of contemplation on his face. He caught Isabella's questioning glance and nodded his assent.
Eliza hadn't waited for the nod from Carlisle before moving forward with the bag and handing it to Bree. Bree took one look at it, snatched it up, and brought it to her mouth biting right through the plastic to drink in the thick viscous liquid in long greedy gulps. The room was silent as she drained the bag of blood. When she finished Eliza was ready with a second bag, that she also eagerly bit into.
To fill the silence Isabella spoke up, giving introductions to everyone "Eliza, this is Bree. Bree this is my daughter Eliza. The doctor's name is Carlisle, I promise he'll take good care of you. "
"It's a pleasure to meet you Bree." Eliza said quietly keeping her tone soft like her mother's.
Bree looked up and nodded slightly by way of greeting but didn't shift her focus from drinking. The group watched as she finished a second bag, and started on a third bag. Isabella noted that the spasms had almost completely stopped, coupled with a slight fading of the grey lines.
Isabella felt awkward just staring at the girl, so she looked up at Eliza. "How are things downstairs?" She asked, more to fill time with conversation than from any real worry.
"Things are… crowded." Eliza sighed, and rolled her eyes for effect. "Tense at best. Jacob, Leah, and several of the pack are waiting to talk to us. They're in one corner of the living room. The Cullens and the Denali are on the other side of the room, pressing themselves into furniture and walls to get as far away from the pack as possible. There's also a lot of mouthing off going on. Mostly Rosalie griping about how they're filthy mutts, and Jacob making snide jokes about blondes. I think he's having a ball since his audience is primarily blonde."
Isabella sighed and rolled her eyes as well, "You tell Jacob if he doesn't behave, I'm going to come down there and punch him in the face again. This time it won't be my hand that breaks."
Esme spoke up after Isabella, "I'll come down with you, Rosalie should know better than to throw insults at our guests. She has better manners than that."
Eliza grinned a little bit and nodded. She crouched down to look Bree in the eyes. "I'm going to be right downstairs if you need anything. Mom's right here and one of us will be close. I promise."
Bree looked up and nodded a little bit. She was slowing as she worked her way through the third bag of blood, and her eyes were receding from black to the more normal bright red of a newborn. Eliza waved a little bit as she headed out the door, Esme just behind her. Just before Esme stepped out of the door, Carlisle looked up at her and after a cautious glance at Isabella asked "Would you see if Edward would come up here?"
Esme hesitated with a tentative glance of her own at Isabella, who after several seconds nodded her head very slightly.
Isabella squeezed Bree's hand gently, her eyes moving over Bree's exposed skin. The introduction of blood in her system clearly had a good effect, since the lines of grey had faded to almost nothing. Though the ones around her neck, spreading up to her jaw and down along her collarbone remained noticeably darker.
"Are you feeling any better now?" She asked quietly. Isabella deliberately ignored the arrival of Edward who glowered at her as he came into the room. Carlisle shut the door to his study gently, grateful that he had long ago had it soundproofed. He stepped to the foot of the couch and looked down at Bree.
Despite the compassionate look on Carlisle's face, Bree shrunk back into the cushions of the couch with a fearful look on her face. Seeing her reaction, he stepped back and held his hands at his sides in the most non-threatening manner he could think of.
Bree nodded slowly "It still… hurts, but not as bad now." She looked up fearfully at Carlisle, Edward and then over at over Isabella's shoulder at Alice. "Are… are you going to kill me and drink my blood now?"
Carlisle looked taken aback by that. "What? No…" He was so caught off guard by the question that he wasn't ready with a coherent response.
Isabella squeezed Bree's hand gently, getting her attention. She seemed to relax when she looked in Isabella's eyes. "I promise you sweetheart. No one here is going to hurt you or kill you."
"Those others wanted to kill me before you two stopped them." Bree countered, her voice wary. Her arm spasmed slightly while she talked.
It was Alice who spoke up in reply. "They were just upset. It's been a long night for them. Their home was destroyed, and they had to run for their lives. They were angry, and blamed you because you were part of the group that attacked them."
Isabella spoke up in an encouraging tone, "Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? We only know your name. "
Bree seemed to consider that a moment, before nodding slowly. "Like I said. My name is Bree, Bree Tanner." She saw Isabella encouraging her with a nod so she continued. "I'm originally from Idaho, but I ran away."
She looked up guiltily as if she expected a scolding for being a runaway. When she didn't get any reproving looks, she sighed slightly in relief. "I sort of ended up in Fairbanks, and was alternating between living on the street and living in a homeless shelter on the really cold nights. I tried to find a job, but no one wants to hire a fifteen year old under the table. So I learned to scrape by." Bree made a disgusted face but didn't go into details on needing to steal and dumpster dive simply to survive
"I was out one night a few months ago, and bumped into this guy in an alley. He saw me digging through a dumpster and offered to buy me a bite to eat." She looked sheepish for a moment, "Needless to say I did get a bite, but not the one I was looking for. I remember the fire, and when it stopped, I was…. this." She looked down at her hands and at the three empty bags of blood that still rested on her stomach.
Isabella nodded and catching Bree's glance down towards the bags, reached out and took the empties off her stomach, sliding them behind her. Alice took the cue and snatched them up quickly, and deposited them into the biohazard trash can set near Carlisle's desk as discreetly as possible.
Bree looked around. "I don't… remember the first few days they were all kind of a blur. I remember being thirsty and feeding. But when I calmed down. There were about… ten or eleven of us. We were living in the basement of this condemned building, you know… only able to go out at night."
Bree broke off as the hand holding Isabella's started to spasm, and then she winced in pain. Carlisle frowned and moved a little closer to observe. This time Bree didn't flinch back though she watched him warily, before continuing. "We spent most of our time down there, obviously limited to nighttime outings. Once a week this polite but kinda smarmy guy would show up and give us these injections that he said would make us stronger and eventually protect us from the sun. Every so often, after an injection he'd take a few blood samples from some of us."
Isabella glanced out of the corner of her eye at Carlisle who was openly frowning. Isabella kept her voice very rigidly under control. "Do you remember the guy's name?"
Bree frowned a little bit. "Everyone called him Doctor Tepes. Although the last time he showed up, he brought a couple of friends with him along another group of vampires, I overheard some of their conversation and I think one of them called him Joham."
Isabella's entire jaw clenched, and she gritted her teeth for several long seconds. Her entire body tensed up and with great difficulty she managed to not crush Bree's hand. Isabella's reaction was strong enough that Carlisle turned his attention to her for several moments.
Isabella felt a hand come to rest gently on her shoulder. She knew without turning around that it was Alice who was there supporting her without words. She felt an inexplicable sense of calmness settle in her, and idly wondered if Jasper was trying to help from downstairs. She dismissed the thought as she looked at Bree. Her voice was calm and steady enough to surprise even her. "Why don't you tell us about what you overheard and tell us about the group? You said they forced you to go along. We won't blame you or anything, but we'd like to know more."
Bree nodded a little bit, "Like I said, last night Dr. Tepes showed up, but he wasn't by himself like usual. He brought a two vampires that seemed like his friends and a whole other group of vampires. There were about fifteen or so. They had us go out to hunt, but instructed us to only feed on hikers and campers so that we didn't to draw any unnecessary attention. I got separated from the group. When I came back early I heard the three of them talking. I think there were a few things they said that seemed important; 'were running out of time with this batch,' and 'we have to move soon before they start dying.' And that 'Someone has already disrupted our chances at getting at the Olympic Coven, probably those accursed Volturi.' I didn't really understand what they meant but it frightened me."
"Dr. Tepes agreed, and said 'I've only seen failure in this batch, it isn't working and none of these newborns have any worthwhile gifts.' It wasn't long after when the rest of the group got back. Dr. Tepes female friend, Aliyah I think, got up and started talking to us. She told us all about the yellow-eyes. She told us all about them, and even how to kill them. She got everyone else so riled up and mad that they were all chanting 'kill, kill, kill." I went along with them, but I thought they were all crazy." Bree glanced up at the yellow eyes of Carlisle and seemed to shift slightly in nervousness and still a touch of fear.
Carlisle's brow twisted in puzzlement, a look that was reflected on both Alice and Isabella's face. Isabella was the one to ask the question. " What did they say to make you afraid of the yellow eyes?" She spoke gently again, not wanting to work her up.
Bree met Isabella's red eyes, looking shocked that she'd even be asking that question. "She said it's because they kill and feed on other vampires to live. That's why their eyes are yellow and not red. She told us they were coming for us, but that it didn't matter because she had found the house they were hiding at. She pulled together our group and another group of vampires she knew that were also tired of getting hunted by the yellow eyes. She also said she had friends who were wolves who wanted to help. She said we could stop them once and for all. Dr. Tepes even gave us all a double sized dose of injections so we would be extra strong for the fight. We went to their house tonight but they managed to escape. We chased them down here and then… you. I didn't want to hurt anyone… but you're like me… why did you help them?" Her eyes shifted from Isabella's red eyes towards Carlisle's yellow as she finished.
Isabella shook her head gently, "They lied to you. A vampire with yellow eyes only feeds off of animals, not humans, and definitely not vampires." Her voice was gentle. The girl's sudden attachment to her over any of the others, even Eliza, was now much more understandable. Isabella was the only vampire here with red eyes.
Bree looked up in disbelief at Carlisle, seeking confirmation. "You… can do that? live off animals?" Carlisle nodded slowly. Bree looked like she was going to say more when her entire body shook again, the spasm clearly becoming more violent. Bree let out a whimper of pain and asked, plaintively, "What's wrong with me?"
Carlisle frowned and spoke up. "I'm… not sure. Do you mind if I take a blood sample, get a closer look at what's going on?"
Bree glanced at Isabella as if seeking reassurance. Isabella nodded encouragingly, and then Bree nodded a little bit. Carlisle moved to the desk and got out a metal syringe with a thick looking needle. He moved over to Bree and placed the thick needle against her neck. She turned her head and closed her eyes. Isabella squeezed her hand as Carlisle quickly plunged the needle in and quickly filled the syringe. He withdrew the needle and held up the syringe. "I'll take a look here and see what I can find out."
He walked away to a microscope that stood on the corner of his desk and began to prepare a slide.
Bree spasmed again as Carlisle moved away. Isabella squeezed her hand gently. Bree met her eyes again. "They really live on animals?" She asked with a touch of hope in her eyes. When Isabella nodded, Bree closed her eyes and asked, "I… don't understand. Why would they lie to us?"
Rather than answer Isabella just squeezed her hand gently. It was several minutes later when Carlisle got up from around his desk and gestured with a slight nod of his head to the hallway. Isabella nodded slightly. She leaned forward and murmured to the girl. "I'm just going to step down stairs and see how things are going. I promise if you need me, I'll be right back."
Bree's eyes flew open, searching Isabella's face as she trembled in mild terror, but nodded once in tentative acknowledgement.
Carlisle spoke up, "Bree… is it okay if Esme stays with you for awhile? She'll just sit in a chair across the room and won't come close if you don't want her to."
Bree looked up at Carlisle for a moment before she nodded again, a nod that was interrupted by another spasm. Carlisle opened his office door and called softly for Esme. He asked her to watch Bree for a few minutes. His look was grave, and she didn't need words to get an idea of what he was leaving unsaid. He stopped her and whispered something, even Isabella's hearing didn't catch. Esme's face looked shocked and then it looked like she was going to cry. Esme entered the room as Carlisle left, followed by Edward, then Alice, and then lastly Isabella, who gave the girl a reassuring smile before stepping out.
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Eliza descended the stairs from Carlisle's office. looking at the large living room with a roll of her eyes. On one side of the room clustered the Cullens and the Denali. On the other side was the wolf pack. Neither side was talking at the moment, though Eliza was unsure if that was an improvement or a sign that hostilities were close to breaking out.
She hesitated only a moment at the bottom of the stairs, letting Esme pass her. Esme made a beeline right for Rosalie with a stern expression on her face and began a whispered conversation. Eliza sighed before she walked around the white furniture in the living room, and sat down on the couch, deliberately placing herself right in the center of the room.
She looked over at Jacob with a raised eyebrow. "Mom says that if you aren't polite, she'll come down here and punch you in the face again. This time it won't be her hand that breaks." Eliza kept her tone light to make it clear she wasn't overtly threatening him.
The tactic worked because Jacob laughed, breaking the tension slightly. Then a silence descended for a few minutes until Leah suddenly moved forward, stepping around Jacob. She walked around the couch to sit down next to Eliza nervously. Leah was very tentative about her action, concerned Eliza might not want her all that close when they were around other vampires. She seemed openly relieved when Eliza actually shifted subtly closer to her. Eliza gave her a happy grin, which caused her to blush slightly and grin back.
"You and your Mom sure did a number on those vampires. You didn't leave very many for us." Leah said.
Eliza gave Leah a playfully sulky look, "I didn't know we'd left any for you. I thought we got them all." While the two of them talked, Jacob walked around to sit on the end of the couch closest to his pack mates. It wasn't much but it was a start. On the other side of the room, Emmet brushed past Rosalie's restraining grip and came forward to take a seat in the easy chair located much closer to the center of the room. He gave Eliza a friendly grin despite the fact that he could feel the heat of Rosalie's gaze on the back of his neck.
Leah laughed a little bit, "There were three that were lagging behind the group. They were hurt or something already. They were muttering about hurrying or they'd miss the killing. It took us about four whole seconds to take them down."
Eliza smiled a little proudly, "Well I'm glad we left you enough to keep you awake. I told you, we're pretty damn effective."
"How can you stand to sit on the same side of the room with those… mutts and that… horrible smell?" snapped a voice that sounded like she'd just been pushed way past the limit of her patience. Eliza turned her head to see Rosalie's head inclined toward Emmett, but her eyes were on Eliza.
"Rosalie, I told you about having manners in our house!" Esme scolded, though the comment seemed to have no effect on Rosalie's seething glare.
Eliza's voice rose to cut off the growls emanating from the throats of several of the pack members. "Well geeze. I don't know. Maybe I trust people on one side of this room. Maybe they have something valuable to contribute to a discussion. Maybe it's that I don't question the loyalty or their bond. Or… maybe… just maybe… I much prefer the scent of wolves on one side of this room, to the stench of bitch on the other."
Rosalie's expression was openmouthed shock. Emmett started coughing in a weak attempt to cover up a laugh. The only thing that saved him from Rosalie's wrath, was that dark haired Adara, broke out in helpless peals of laughter. Her laughter joined the shock and then the chuckles from the wolf pack.
Rosalie turned and glared at Adara who ignored her. Taking the initiative, Adara stepped forward and moved around to sit at the end of the couch. "Hi, I'm Adara" She greeted Eliza with a nod of her head and then extended the greeting to the wolf pack with a wave.
Eliza smiled, and gestured to those sitting on her side of the couch with her, now numbering three after Jacob's wife moved to sit down beside him. "This is Leah, and Tekali, and that's the pack alpha Jacob." Leah smiled tentatively in response. Tekali actually gave a small return wave and Jacob nodded his head in greeting.
Eliza turned her attention back to the pack. "Like I was saying before we were so… bitchily interrupted. Mom and I are pretty effective, given our specific skill sets, though probably not quite as effective as Jane and Alec."
"Jane and Alec?" Jacob asked curiously.
Eliza frowned, "Arguably the two most powerful vampires in existence. Jane can cause people to feel things just by looking at them. One glance can have you writhing around on the ground in the worst pain you can imagine. I'm told it's like someone holding burning iron to every part of your body. She can also effect a dozen or so people at once. Alec's power is worse… or better, depending on how you look at it. He can selectively cut off some or all of his victim's senses. I'm told it's like suddenly being in a pitch black room with no sense of what's going on around you. Even worse he can blanket an area, so anyone in it suddenly loses whatever senses he chooses."
It was Carmen who spoke up from the group of Denali. Her brow was knitted in confusion. "You're told? I know for a fact that part of Volturi guard training involves being exposed to both of their powers. Unless things have majorly changed."
Eliza shook her head, meeting Carmen's challenging gaze. "Nope, things haven't changed. That's still part of the training."
"Then you should know exactly how it feels." Carmen said with a frown of puzzlement.
"Other than feeling slightly uneasy when Jane glared at me? I mean… seriously she looks like a demented angel when she's using her powers. It's just neither of their gifts work on us." Eliza said with a faint trace of smugness. Her reply caused some glances around the members of the Denali. She could tell they were significant, but not why.
Jacob glanced up the stairs, "So what's the deal with the girl?" he inquired curiously.
Eliza frowned a little bit, "Her name is Bree. She was scared and hiding. She wasn't trying to hurt anyone." Eliza glanced at Leah as her voice dropped slightly, echoing the words she had said to Leah the night of the council meeting. "We don't kill for fun or pleasure. Sometimes there's just no choice. I had a choice with her. Mom's still up with her right now."
Jacob nodded a little bit, his face serious as he spoke up again. "Is she going to be long? We really need to talk."
Eliza's expression turned serious in response to his tone, "She might be awhile. What's going on?"
"It's about the wolves we faced tonight. They were… different from us." For once Jacob shifted nervously in his seat as he tried to figure out how to explain.
Eliza leaned forward on the couch, her brow furrowed in curiosity. "What do you mean they were different?"
Jacob frowned a little bit, "There were two different types of wolves this time. Five of them were like us but… not like us." Jacob ran a hand through his hair. He was clearly trying to put his thoughts into words for once. "We were out in the free air this time so it was easier to assess their smell. Their scent was weird... different... I'm sorry I don't know how else to describe it. I know this won't make sense, but it's like they were like us… but in my bones I knew they shouldn't exist." He frowned, clearly not thinking the description was adequate, but clearly not having any idea how to conjure the right words.
Eliza frowned, her expression fixed and puzzled. "You said five out of the six of them smelled like that? What was the sixth one like?"
Jacob nodded his head at that, "Yeah, the sixth one was completely different. He wasn't like us, he was something else. When attacked them , the five wolves went down almost immediately. We do know how to take down our own kind. But this sixth wolf changed. He turned into something that wasn't like any wolf I've ever seen before."
"What was it like? Could you describe it?" The question came from Eleazar as he stepped forward, his voice intense and his eyes focused on Jacob as he moved to the center of the room.
Jacob nodded. "He was big. Almost as big as I am when I shift. But he stood on two legs and was more human."
Eleazar was still staring intently at Jacob, "Did you manage to kill it?"
Jacob frowned at the expression on Eleazar's face, "Yes of course. It threw us off for a minute, but there were nine of us and one of him. It wasn't really a fair fight…"
"Did he manage to bite any of you? At all?" Eleazar asked glancing up at the pack behind him. The intensity of his question throwing both Jacob and Eliza off.
Jacob shook his head, "No, we circled and went for his back and legs. He went down pretty quick."
Eleazar seemed to relax somewhat at that, but it was Tanya who spoke up next addressing Eleazar. "You don't think it was…"
Eleazar's brow knit up and he slowly shrugged, "I don't know… what he's describing sounds like one. But… I thought they were extinct; and I was always told they never run in packs."
There was a slight pause when Carlisle called for Esme from upstairs, and she got out of her chair to ascend the stairs. Jacob spoke up a his eyes narrowed in a glare at Eleazar, "You mind clueing us in on what you're talking about?"
It was Eliza who replied, a grimace on her face as she crossed her arms. "You remember how I told you that you were shifters and not real werewolves?" She waited until Jacob nodded, "Well, what you describe sounds like a real werewolf; one of the Children of the Moon."
Her gaze met Eleazar's and he gave a slight nod of agreement. "The problem is like he said. They're supposed to be extinct. Now one just shows up?"
The conversation was interrupted by the sight of Carlisle, Edward, Alice and Isabella descending the stairs.
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Author's note:
1) Whoo. Longer chapter but I didn't see a good breaking point O_O so. there we go. Yellow eyed cannibals! AHH! O_O
2) I couldn't go through a story like this without including Bree at least for a little while :O
3) I had a couple people comment on the last chapter that it felt weird for Bella to go from angry to kissing. And I wanted to point out a couple of things in case they weren't made obvious by this chapter.
Bella didn't make the conscious decision to kiss Alice. Bella really only has two settings "in control" and "instincts." She has no freaking clue what it means for her as a person. z she was trying to warn off Alice and getting angrier and los t control but deep down she doesn't want to kill Alice so her instincts took over and did something else. Something she's not quite prepared for.
Alice realizes Bella isn't ready for anything and she isn't going to push Bella. She's also dealing with the guilt of what Bella went through.
Things are not going to be immediately lovey dovey and cuddly and a relationship isn't going to be quick or anything. Just to set some of you at ease. (Or irritate the shit out of you)
4) Once again thanks to DarkBella who's ideas helped craft this story. She truly is a wonderful writer.
5) Thanks this time also go out to a consistent reviewer. Samantha Minuet who also stepped up and provided amazing collaborative services for this chapter especially when I was all grumpy.^_^
6) Less emotional than in the past. But back to plot movement.
Thank you all for the wonderful reviews and responses! They really are amazing! Please continue!
Also, I'm looking for someone who has alot of knowledge of japanese culture and history. (and I mean real culture, particularly myths, not just watches alot of anime.) I need to ask some questions for story purposes. If it's you please PM me here or yahoo me at Kathryn_518
Thank you ^_^
